Castlevania: Aria of the Ascending Soul
Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
Beta By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
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There was no light.
Spirits lacked the need for light and without realizing it, the dead hunters had failed to inform the living of that fact. So without Soma in the Master Chambers to provide guidance, the Castle seemed to be indifferent in aiding the living. After all, humans were not part of its residency, so why bother with candles or torches? Even here in the lower regions of the Castle itself. The undead monsters, be they servants or animals seemed to have 'some' semblance of such service.
Absent of candles or torches, the only light came strictly by the subset with the power of spells. So it only came in flashes of orange flame or golden lightning, arcing through the air while giving only a small glimpse of just what was being faced. More over the tunnels leading down were narrow, small affairs that only opened up once they were far below the earth itself.
But maybe they were too harsh on the Castle.
Maybe it 'had' some semblance of concern.
Cool air brushed against their skin when they entered the area with a sense of space and room. It was the sound that alerted them to the size in the pitch blackness, a sound that kept them still and straining to hear more. Whimpering high above, accompanied by the soft grinding screech of metal on metal. It bounced off distant walls, with each peak incurring the sticky peeling of skin as something moved.
Singular in sound, a single unit of something massive leaving the hunters still at the door.
Metal, people hung up from the ceiling given the types of whimpers. But what was the set up? How easy would it be for whatever was in the room to snatch up whoever was hanging above? There had never really been a 'hostage' situation before when it came to the castle, even when Dracula kidnapped people. He left them in rooms apart from where battles took place, or teleported them away.
Even the spirits were at a loss for how they could help. Daring not to speak a word, they were left surveying the room with the vision granted the spirit realm. Above the living were cages, hanging by new, though not thick, chains. People were huddled in the center unable to see what threatened them, only able to hear it.
'It' was on the ground below. Roughly still human in shape, in that it had legs and arms, a build that implied it had once been a man. The head was there in concept, but now was a giant gaping maw, with teeth easily the length of fingers. As for the flesh, well the skin hung from the body, with the veins having... inverted?
They protruded out from the mouth, tendrils of veins that extended from the nails of this hulking remains of a cultist. Scattered on the ground were the remains of various other monsters, seemingly reasonable for the location. As well as a few maid uniforms that were scattered about, leaving a surprisingly grisly suggestion of what this beast could do.
If the maids had come with intentions of helping the humans, and what other reason could they have for being in a dusty cave otherwise, they didn't survive.
A sudden whimpered cry for help from the cages brought a wince from Charlotte as the beast reacted. A gargled cry of, possible, elation escaped its mouth as it blindly swung its large beefy hands into the air. Flailing about no more than a demonic beat stick of massive muscles looking for a flimsy cage to whack.
And if it did...
"Ahh let's just kill it and get the people out of here," Max finally blurted out in frustration. A fireball flung into an arc cast a lurid orange glow, revealing just what their departed kin had already seen. "Well that's ugly. But I suppose par for the course given what we've heard..."
"Have you ever heard of 'discretion...'"
"...Being the better part of valor?"
Alex and Alexis both asked as their gazes went straight towards the cages hanging above them.
"LeCardes, Maxine Aulin. Crazy Bunny, normal well adjusted twins," Sam sighed in resignation before he let the coiled length of Undead Killer to drop to the ground. The fireball had dissipated leaving of them once more in darkness. But there was no mistaking the sound of lumbering pounding that heralded the thing as it started charging at them.
"Ci-vil-ins, Max."
"There are civilians in this room..."
Trembling, the ground and walls had yet to stop their vibrations as it jostled the cages that hung from the ceiling. Each cage now made more noise than mere metal against metal. The people were terrified, squeaks and whimpers rose up into cries of terror and barely contained screams.
This random group of civilians ranged across different parts of the world, ages, and genders. Terror knew no boundaries and the group clung to each other, united in fear. Yet the second the monsters' heavy footsteps began, the gave in to their terror and began to vocalize their cries. Re-enforced by the fact they could hear people below.
So they screamed for help drawing the attention of, not one of Dracula's own demonic initial followers, rather a physically self mauled cultist.
Lumbering, its one time intelligence gone, the raving beast howled as it raced forward. Flailing its large beefy fists in the air again and again, but given there were no visible eyes. It raised a question on how it was even intended to see, what type of devolution was this?
"A mere brute," Loretta noted, a small frown with disappointment in her tone as she watched from the ceiling.
The other spirits turned slightly to give her their auditory attention, while watching as their descendants scatter about the room.
"I can't shake the feeling that the Castle is not impressed by these cultists," she confessed earning her a small 'snirk' from her sister.
"More like 'you' are not impressed," Stella replied with a smug grin. "But I understand, these cultists just seem..."
Sam and Max finally settled on a game of Marco Polo as they moved about the room, between the crack of the Undead Killer whip from Sam. Coupled by the elemental sounds from Max's own attacks the beast was trapped going in one direction then the other. Its whip like nerve things were not able to get close enough before the sound of the other pulled them away.
"You know its nice to finally be able to cut loose. Not have someone constantly nagging about property damage," Max commented cheerfully. That type of cheer that completely missed the point that they were going to have to blind fight a monster with limited chances to see what it could even 'do'.
"Dracula is going to send us a bill on the damages isn't he?" Sam lamented as he dashed out of the way from the charging beast. Its veins were uprooted from the body, reaching about like tendrils.
The weight of the steps warned Sam to move from his starting location, the chill produced by the natural magics of the twins brushed against his cheek. Letting him know that the pair had taken off, and Alex was as much a ground fighter as Sam. So the pair must have moved upwards towards the cages.
'What type of monster are you?' Sam pondered as he focused on the steps the monster was taking. Fabric rustled as Alexis ascended to the ceiling, while the beast lacked such distracting noise. It ran almost up to the entrance of the room, but its bulk made getting through impossible. Yet... 'It didn't slam into the wall so it has a means of seeing? Or is it those threads?'
Another fireball from over his head gave him some visual definitions to work with, with quiet reminders that he hadn't fought true 'hellspawn' before. 'No visible ears, eyes or nose or neck, so complete absence of three senses...'
"So I guess this is where all the failed transformed cultists got sent," he finally commented as he backed up.
"Its Bane isn't it? This monster is trying to do a Bane thing," Max asked from her place on her broom. Two fire balls and she had seen all she needed to of this reject, the lesser a challenge the more she wanted to shut off her brain. And nothing was more brain turn off, than a monster that was just a recolor attempt at a DC boss with some new gimmick.
Sam had to chuckle at the sheer disappointment in Max's voice as that revelation came about. Leaving him shaking his head slightly, "Well, a failed attempt at any rate. And we're not Batman so... don't let your guard dro-," he began only to see her fire off another, this time massive, fireball. "You know the LeCardes need their ice magic to help them rescue the hostages..."
"Ooh yeah sorry," She replied absentmindedly before twisting the flames into more animalistic forms.
"Ooh sorry, I'm just an elemental manic with no context about control when I go off," Sam mocked as the beast fell back a step. It had thrown up its arms to block the flames that were scorching the ground on its fast track to it.
They were... moving... Sam's attention was caught as those thin whip like appendages began to split apart and move. Blood dribbled out, only to ignite when exposed to the mixture of flame and air, bringing the only comparison he could come up with. 'Veins? Those are blood veins its whipping around?'
"No no no! You're interrupting my practice!" A shrill voice shrieked from behind them. A black hole had generated in the air above the entryway with a woman's voice coming forth.
"Brother, she noticed us..." Alexis commented as she peered across the ice bridge the pair had formed. "Brother she noticed us!" She repeated as this sensation of something massive shot up just beyond her. The wind whipping past her and pulling at her clothes and hair as it did so, bringing to mind the thought of a massive fist.
Which she was unknowingly correct on, for the spirits could see said appendage, the arm, as it punched its way through a portal. Wicked long clawed finger tips and purple flesh, currently not something they recognized as being from Grahams part of the cult. But Fortners 'were' summoner wannabes and if they had now the power to summon random demons from hell...
"Think that, despite being dead, we might have some influence?" Jonathan asked with a frown as he eyed the cages. "The kids need to see, if not them at least the hostages need to see so they can safely be freed and escape."
There was no other walls, the only exit was that one lone crack in the wall or use a portal. Portals that none of the present living could generate. While currently it would just be too hard to get the civilians out to the man's point of view. Even if the twins formed a corridor of ice for safe passage, either the beast or this summoner was going to smash it to pieces.
"We could try talking to them?" Eric suggested with a worrying frown as he saw the same issues that now bothered Jonathan.
"Damn no, they've lived soft lives, they don't know this brand of hardship, we'll end up with people broken and running or just collapsing. We need the living to guide them," John replied with a sigh of disappointment. "You ladies know magic better than me, think you can magic up a solution?"
"Well, Charlotte could easily generate fire..."
"If I were alive..."
"Which we're not sister."
"... But we 'are' in a Castle filled with power, gorged in fact, at the moment. If nothing else we could try to tap into it," Stella finished side eyeing her fellow ladies.
"Oh."
"My apologies sister."
"If that doesn't work there.. is a possible idea that struck me," Eric offered thoughtfully as he looked about the room. "Maybe we just need to ask the staff to turn on the lights? Now that I look at it, the room seems to have half formed fixtures for torches or something. Maybe the staff can have the castle generate something. What with working for it," Eric theorized.
"Good point, ok, ladies do your thing. We'll see about getting the lights on, just in case," John instructed as he lightly tapped his son on the upper arm before floating out of the room.
"I think its blood is on fire," Loretta commented thoughtfully before turning to focus on her fellow casters.
"And now we have a summoner in the room," Stella added watching as the portal that was producing the demonically large arm swung blindly. Lacking any clear direction, Stella was left to wonder if the summoner couldn't see anything in the room either. That thought made the arms' motion even more upsetting. Arching through the air, sending the cages swinging before carving a curve of wounds into the upper wall.
Reigniting the panicked screams of the trapped people.
'She has to know that there are people but she doesn't care...' Disapproval and disgust colored the rest of Stella's thoughts before she joined her magical energy with her twin.
Hoping that between the two of them they could charge up Charlottes' own magics to the point where they could actually manifest.
Noise began to consume the room, from the stomping feet of the beast, the sizzle of its blood as it dripped on the ground. Only to be joined by the screams of the prisoners as something massive slammed into their cages and sent them swinging.
"Rude," Max called out, sending a smaller fireball, only for it to explode into a shower of lights. No better or different than fireworks it lasted longer, revealing the room a little better.
The beast's 'whip' like appendage was now relaxed into a multiple, and probably more, smaller threads. While Sam still couldn't make out any eyes or ears, the mouth was open though, with the tongue lolled out. Despite its lack of eyes or ears it was still targeting him pretty well. 'Could it be tasting the air? Why else would the tongue be out?' he pondered as he...
"... A Bane wannabe that pukes his organs out..." Max noted, her tone hinting that she had scrunched her nose in disgust.
"What?" Sam asked as he lashed out with Undead Killer while he dodged another blind rush.
"From up here... It looks like those whip things? Are its veins, so..." Max answered before shrieking in glee from a whoosh that sent her spinning out from her elevated jump.
"Its literally inverted," Sam finished shaking his head. 'Explains the lack of eyes and ears if its inside the body..."
"Kind of her to keep they're focus off us," Alexis commented as she worked on freezing the lock, intensifying the cold as fast as she could to get it to break.
"I still can't see a way out of here save the way we entered," Alex replied before gathering enough ice to send massive ice shards to slam into the arm. The portals weren't staying in a fixed location, so he could only focus on the arm...
It was then that he suddenly realized he could see in the room. Not in great detail, but there was a faint light coming from areas of the room against the walls. The question was for when he wasn't shielding a bunch of civilians. Instead, now he had some grasp of where this demonic arm was so he could focus better on his own attacks. 'Get the civs out first, then we can get serious...' he thought as a slight oval of hanging darkness finally was revealed. Perhaps a shadow from something in the room.
But he wasn't going to just let it hang there, if it was the summoners' portal. Calling his spear to his hand, he took a leap off the ice platform the pair had created and dove down. Driving the spear into the demon arm. While he missed the major veins, it was enough to halt the arm out of its wild swings. As it backed off, he focused on generating one more shard and sent it towards the dark spot in the air.
"SON OF A BI-" the woman's voice shrieked in surprise.
Which told him that she wasn't looking in the room really, careless? Arrogance? It didn't matter, as for a time the portal producing the arm shut. One moment the arm was relaxed from its swing though tight in that it clearly wanted the spear out if it. The next moment Alex was falling to the ground while still holding on to his spear. The muscles under his feet twitching in spasms as the portal that the arm was coming from shut without warning. Only the loud gushing of blood as a demon in hell was now missing an arm.